The latest (May, 2012) BMC bicycle maps are now available. If you didn’t get one during Bike to Work Week, they should soon be showing up in your local bike shop if they aren’t already there. If you’d like, you may also download a high-quality PDF of the map HERE, but note that it is a 4.2-MB download.
Three local organizations, The Center for the Homeless, The YMCA of Michiana, and the Alcohol & Addictions Resource Center, are hosting a triathlon on Sunday, August 26th, at the Michiana YMCA in South Bend.
Notably, this event will have an interesting twist: for those interested, the swim leg may be substituted with a kayaking leg on the St. Joseph River!
Please visit the official event site for full details.
Based on the success of last year’s ND Cycling Classic, The University of Notre Dame has been selected to host the 2012 Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference Championships.
The race series will again include Team Time Trial (TTT), Road Race (RR) and Criterium (crit) events, but it will be even bigger this year with over 300 collegiate cyclists from about forty schools.
As was the case last year, many volunteers will be needed. If you’re free that weekend and can lend a hand, please see below for details on how to get involved.
The Northern Indiana Mountain Bike Association (NIMBA) will be having a Trail Build day at Bendix Woods, this Sunday, 3/25, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and they are looking for helping hands.
If you’d like to participate, enter the park through the gate off of SR2. The gate is just west of the Bosch facility. They will meet at the Otahnagon Shelter area.
They have all the tools needed to build the trail, and volunteers just need to bring a pair of gloves to help out. They will have water and lunch for everyone. Spring time is the best time to build trail so come out an give them a hand!
If you want to get a better understanding of what they are doing when building the trail, check out the following video:
For any additional information, please contact NIMBA president, John Marquardt at the following email address: NIMB.BIKE@GMAIL.COM
Michiana has lost another avid local cyclist due to a collision with a motor vehicle: Steven Carey was struck and killed by a motorist on Sunday, February 19. Few details are available as of this writing, other than the identity of the driver, that the collision occurred during daylight hours, and that Steven was an experienced cyclist riding, with traffic, northbound on SR 23 near the I80/90 overpass.
Although Michiana continues to make progress toward safer cycling, our community has suffered numerous such car vs bicycle tragedies, and it is clear that much work is still needed.
We offer our deepest condolences to Steven’s friends and family, and we also reflect upon previous Michiana fatalities.
In 2008 we lost cyclist Patrick Sawyer to a drunk driver. His widow, Nancy, recently created a video tribute to her late husband. With the video, she highlights the severe personal toll of drunk driving, and she makes a personal plea for safer cycling in Michiana.